Bibliographical Note, War with the United
States

Enough books to fill a small library have been
written about the 'sprawling and sporadic' War of 1812. Most of them
deal with particular phases, localities, or events; and most of them
are distinctly partisan. This is unfortunate, but not surprising.
The war was waged over an immense area, by various forces, and with
remarkably various results. The Americans were victorious on the
Lakes and in all but one of the naval duels fought at sea. Yet their
coast was completely sealed up by the Great Blockade in the last
campaign. The balance of victory inclined towards the British side
on land. Yet the annihilating American victories on the Lakes
nullified most of the general military advantages gained by the
British along the Canadian frontier. The fortunes of each campaign
were followed with great interest on both sides of the line. But on
the other side of the Atlantic the British home public had Napoleon
to think of at their very doors; and so, for the most part, they
regarded the war with the States as an untoward and regrettable
annoyance, which diverted too much force and attention from the
life-and-death affairs of Europe.

All these peculiar influences are reflected in the different
patriotic annals. Americans are voluble about the Lakes and the
naval duels out at sea. But the completely effective British
blockade of their coast-line is a too depressingly scientific factor
in the problem to be welcomed by a general public which would not
understand how Yankee ships could win so many duels while the
British Navy won the war. Canadians are equally voluble about the
battles on Canadian soil, where Americans had decidedly the worst of
it. As a rule, Canadian writers have been quite as controversial as
Americans, and not any readier to study their special subjects as
parts of a greater whole. The British Isles have never had an
interested public anxious to read about this remote, distasteful,
and subsidiary war; and books about it there have consequently been
very few.

The two chief authors who have appealed directly to the readers of
the mother country are William James and Sir Charles Lucas. James
was an industrious naval historian; but he was quite as
anti-American as the earlier American writers were anti-British.
Owing to this perverting bias his two books, the _Naval_ and the
Military Occurrences of the late War between Great Britain and the
United States, are not to be relied upon. Their appendices,
however, give a great many documents which are of much assistance in
studying the real history of the war. James wrote only a few years
after the peace. Nearly a century later Sir Charles Lucas wrote
The Canadian War of 1812, which is the work of a man whose
life-long service in the Colonial Office and intimate acquaintance
with Canadian history have both been turned to the best account. The
two chief Canadian authors are Colonel Cruikshank and James Hannay.
Colonel Cruikshank deserves the greatest credit for being a real
pioneer with his Documentary History of the Campaigns upon the
Niagara Frontier. Hannay's History of the War of 1812
shows careful study of the Canadian aspects of the operations; but
its generally sound arguments are weakened by its controversial
tone.

The four chief American authors to reckon with are, Lossing, Upton,
Roosevelt, and Mahan. They complement rather than correspond with
the four British authors. The best known American work dealing with
the military campaigns is Lossing's Field-Book of the War of 1812.
It is an industrious compilation; but quite uncritical and most
misleading. General Upton's _Military Policy of the United States_
incidentally pricks all the absurd American militia bubbles with an
incontrovertible array of hard and pointed facts. The Naval War
of 1812, by Theodore Roosevelt, is an excellent sketch which
shows a genuine wish to be fair to both sides. But the best naval
work, and the most thorough work of any kind on either side, is
Admiral Mahan's Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812.

A good deal of original evidence on the American side is given in
Brannan's Official Letters of the Military and Naval Officers of
the United States during the War with Great Britain in the Years
1812 to 1815. The original British evidence about the campaigns
in Canada is given in William Wood's Select British Documents of
the Canadian War of 1812. Students who wish to see the actual
documents must go to Washington, London, and Ottawa. The Dominion
Archives are of exceptional interest to all concerned.

The present work is based entirely on original evidence, both
American and British.

The principal authority for material on Joseph Brant
is William L. Stone's Life of Joseph Brant(Thayendanegea), 2
vols. (1838). This includes an account of the border wars of the
American Revolution and sketches of the Indian campaigns of Generals
Harmar, St Clair, and Wayne. A brief biography entitled Memoir of
Captain Joseph Brant, 'compiled from authentic records,' was
published anonymously in Brantford in 1872. History of Brant
County (1883), Part II, pages 85-149, is devoted almost
exclusively to Brant and his family. Samuel G. Drake's Biography
and History of the Indians of North America from its First Discovery
has one chapter (pp. 577-93) given exclusively to Brant. The chapter
in the same work dealing with Red Jacket will also be found of
interest to the student of Brant's career. William L. Stone, Jr.'s
Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, 2 vols. (1865),
contains much valuable information regarding the events which shaped
the early career of Brant. B. B. Thatcher in his Indian Biography,
2 vols., dismisses Brant with an unsympathetic and prejudiced
paragraph, but several of his chapters, particularly the one dealing
with Red Jacket, throw much light on the struggles in which Brant
took part.

Other works which contain much material relating to Joseph Brant are
Mrs Holden's The Brant Family; Eleazar Wheelock's Narrative
of the Original Design, Rise, Progress and Present State of the
Indian Charity-School at Lebanon, In Connecticut (1763); William
V. Moore's Indian Wars of the United States; Jean N.
McIlwraith's Sir Frederick Haldimand, and A. G. Bradley's
Lord Dorchester in the 'Makers of Canada' series; Lewis H.
Morgan's League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois; E. M.
Chadwick's The People of the Long House; Documents
relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791,
selected and edited by Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty;
Haldimand Papers, January 1779 to March 1783, copies of which
are in the Dominion Archives; Handbook of Canadian Indians,
edited by James White, F.R.G.S.

See also in this Series: The Dawn of Canadian History; The
Father of British Canada; The War Chief of the Ottawa;
Tecumseh.

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Chronicles of Canada, The
United Empire Loyalists, A Chronicle of the Great Migration, 1915